May 14, 12:00AM it is. A journey to Ladakh, which we all were waiting since long. For all of us it is a dream come true. A fantasy, a fairy tale which was too good to be true.
If you are new to this blog, please checkout my previous blogs related to Ladakh journey that would add more fun to this story. Blog 1 – LADAKH – ULTIMATE JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF SENSATIONAL PASSES
Deja Vu Day
Yes, for me it is a Dejavu day, on one side I am very exicited, but on other I am scared. It will be long, it will be adventurous, but fact is it will be away from my family.
I was never away for this long from my family, bike riding is dangerous specially on Indian roads and mountains. There are all types of roads and sometimes no roads. All types of drivers but, majority of them are crazy on road. No matter, you follow all traffic rules, or you ride/drive safely, there is always a risk on road.
The risk increases tremendously on a motorcycle, specially when you have to ride 3500Kms for 15 days, no wonder something is always waiting to happen. You could be nervous, tired and there are many factors which could bring your adventurous journey to an end.
This journey also has many such stories which could have ended our journey for ever.
WARNING: Overloading is a mistake
This is the first mistake all newcomer riders make. They overload their bikes with stuff never required. Same happened with us. Look at my bike in the picture, there is still a tank bag to come over it. First long trip and fear of missing anything make me perform such a huge mistake. I packed too much.
I am a Royal Enfield Himalayan rider, which is heavy. My bike was already 200Kg and I added 50Kg in lugguage and overall it was a 320Kg machine on road. A 70Kg rider handling a 250Kg machine. No way I could ever pick it up in case of a stall. The weight of riding gears still to be added, which would easily make it to a 330Kg moving machine on the road.
Identifying the mistake
Before, I begin with the ride, most of you must be curious to know what made me pack this much. The answer lies in the biggest mistake which we all could have avoided in our first ever long trip. The plan to do camping.
Never ever plan for camping on a long journey unless you plan to do it for at least 60-70% of your journey.
We were carrying, tent, sleeping bag, mattress, cooking gas cans, cooking stove, utencils, ready to eat food and other stuff require for camping. All this stuff took almost 60% of our lugguage. Only ready to eat food in my Top box.
Don’t miss the upcoming days of this journey. There you will get to know, that why camping is not recommended for such long journey.
The journey begins
“Mukarba chowk” also known as the karnal bypass was our meeting point for this ride. If you are travelling from Delhi then this is the place where usually every journey to the north of India starts.
All 7 of us were ready to roll but, the cherry on the cake was our fellow riders who acompany us at the meeting point. They came to meet us and bless us with their love and luck for the journey (below picture) – sorry for the poor quality image, we could manage only this at that moment.
For the better understanding, lets name all the riders from left to right (only those going to Ladakh). Starting from 3rd on the left of the picture is myself- Akshay, then Akshansh, Karan, Dipesh, Mehar, Surender and Sandy. We are the 7 warriors from our group “The Iron Steeds“, who started this journey and all of us going Ladakh on a bike for the first time.
First Checkpoint
Our journey started early morning around 4AM and immediately paused at our first checkpoint, which was Murthal’s Pehalwan Dhaba. It wasn’t a planned stoppage however, it became one as our fellow group riders decided to come along with us until the first checkpoint.
We had light snacks at Pehalwan Dhaba, which is one of the eating joints in Murthal, specially famous for their Paranthas. However, it delayed our journey considerably as so far, we only managed to cover 70 Kms of the long 650Kms to our day 1 destination, which was Udhampur in Jammu.
Start time was 3AM. However, we started around 4:30AM and we reached till Murthal by 5:30AM, which was almost morning. Therefore, the idea of avoiding day traffic and heat of May, was already a failure. There was no way we could have reached a place cooler in the given time.
We were travelling from Srinagar side and while travelling from that direction, usually first overnight stoppage is Udhampur in Jammu.
The day 1 from Delhi to Udhampur was really dramatic. I hope you are liking this journey so far, the fun continous in next blog.
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